The Cascade Vol. 24 No. 5

FEBRUARY 17 TO FEBRUARY 23, 2016

VOLUME 24 ISSUE 5

Staying together for the kids since 1993

“We have to be ready to kick some ass” On the road with UFV’s women’s basketball team Pages 10-11

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

CONTENTS

News

Opinion

Culture & Events

Arts in Review

All departments being equal?

The friendliest department

Lunar New Year

Deadpool

Nothing but praise for UFV International

UFV Global Engagement celebrates with dumplings

Sex, violence, and chimichangas

Senate committee working on a universitywide grading policy

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CONTRIBUTORS

STAFF Editor-in-Chief Michael Scoular michael@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Alex Rake alex@ufvcascade.ca

Illustrator Sultan Jum sultan@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Valerie Franklin valerie@ufvcascade.ca

Culture Editor Glen Ess glen@ufvcascade.ca

Webmaster (interim) Michael Scoular michael@ufvcascade.ca

Business Manager Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts jennifer@ufvcascade.ca

Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca

Multimedia Editor Mitch Huttema mitch@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

Production Manager Brittany Cardinal brittany@ufvcascade.ca

Staff Writer Sonja Klotz sonjak@ufvcascade.ca

News Editor Vanessa Broadbent vanessa@ufvcascade.ca

Production Assistant Danielle Collins danielle@ufvcascade.ca

Arts Writer Jeffrey Trainor jeffrey@ufvcascade.ca

Julianne Huff Megan Lambert Pankaj Sharma

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE

Volume 24 · Issue 5 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Cover image: Sultan Jum Printed by International Web exPress

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It originated under its current name in 1993, and achieved autonomy from the university and the Student Union Society in 2002. This means that The Cascade is a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published in an entirely student-run setting. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds, and is overseen by the Cascade Journalism Society Board, a body run by a student majority. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a print circulation of 1,500 and is distributed at Abbotsford, Chilliwack (CEP), Clearbrook, and Mission UFV campuses and throughout the surrounding communities.

The Cascade is open to written, photo, and design work from all students; these can come in the form of a pitch to an editor, or an assignment from an editor. Writers meetings are held each Monday at 2:00 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

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In order to be published in the newspaper, all work must first be approved by The Cascade’s editor-in-chief, copy editor, and corresponding section editor. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. Letters to the editor, while held to the same standard, are unedited, and should be under 400 words. As The Cascade is an autonomous student publication, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, The Cascade’s staff and collective, or associated members.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL

“The only way to create real opportunities” It’s a new year for the provincial legislature. But who cares?

MICHAEL SCOULAR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

As a university student, there is arguably no governmental body more influential on where you are, what you’re studying, and what the completion of your study will feel like than the provincial government. While the UFV Senate, Board of Governors, finance team, and other groups make the monthto-month adjustments in course development, allocation of funds per department, and hiring of new staff and professors, the Ministry of Advanced Education sets the boundaries for imagination when it comes to those moves. They set a mandate, they hold final approval on many would-be significant changes, and so, while there’s a responsibility and some flexibility to what the administrators and faculty of UFV do, when you look around and see change, or its absence, it’s possible to trace a great deal of that back to Victoria. Universities may be increasingly run like businesses, but the label on this place is a public, teachingfocused university, which means this week’s budget reveal by Abbotsford-West MLA Michael de Jong is cause for, well, maybe not celebration, but attention from the people with offices in B building.

Okay, everyone knows what the provincial government is, many know there’s an election set for 2017, and so this session of the provincial legislature is a little more of interest than usual — but what to do with this knowledge? Pay attention?

“

illustration: Sultan Jum

The Throne Speech is mainly ceremonial — the points it makes don’t spring into laws. But it doesn’t sit at a great remove from political decisions either.

Read? Volunteer with a campaign? These options will always be taken up by a minority of people with particular motivations; for the rest of us, politics tends to either exist as a stand-by bit of television entertainment or as a concept that works better in theory than practice most of the time. I never like to choose ignorance — especially when, with something like the provincial government, information is vast and a lot of it is accessible, at least if someone wants to understand how it basically works.

But I think that what most people call apathy (and prescribe awareness to combat) often comes from a very keen awareness of what is being missed out on.

Take this last week’s Throne Speech for example. It isn’t terribly long, and it’s available to watch on YouTube. As a text, it’s light on actual information, but that isn’t what it’s there for — it sets the tone for the next year; it tells the story of how the ruling party would like to be perceived, before the critics and the opposition start shouting over them; and, in the right hands, it ought to bond the majority of voters together — this is the party they elected, and this is what they will be hard at work doing.

There’s often something harmful about the way politics gets distorted into entertainment, but charisma, framing, and a certain amount of artifice is necessary to bring people in, to get them interested in what is, no matter how personable a politician seems to be — an endlessly complex process. But to watch the Throne Speech is to see how little the provincial government cares about reaching people outside of its meeting chambers — it’s impossible to imagine anyone making it through its over 20 minutes except for work: political science students, journalists,

and the other elected officials sitting in the building where it was delivered.

Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon, reading from an unwieldy, photo-book-sized folio, did the sort of things we imagine (or hope) vanish after we make it through years of university presentations and student-led lectures: starting sentences incorrectly and doubling back, making very little eye contact, all while the camera slowly faded between a distant long shot and a static medium shot — the kind of direction you’d use to intentionally lull someone to sleep. The only surprising or fascinating variation (besides the questions raised by some of Guichon’s statements about B.C.’s goals and current state), was whether, perhaps, it would be too harsh to say all this — a ball of tissues appearing about the time Guichon discussed tax credits to farmers who donate to nonprofits, hovering beneath her nose, then used at a pause suggested maybe she was fighting to get over a cold.

Of course, the Throne Speech is mainly ceremonial — the points it makes don’t spring into laws. But it doesn’t sit at a great remove from political decisions either. Tuesday’s budget announcement reflects most of its key points: both its focuses on current crises and probable election talking points and its backgrounding of important areas that aren’t commanding the public forum right now. For example, education, which receives two lines in the speech, only referencing the new K-12 curriculum rollout and the Skills for Jobs plan that has favoured trades funding at UFV. Following $50 million in “cost reductions” over the prior three years, this year’s budget projects a slight increase in Advanced Education’s allocation. Governments don’t have to lead ideas about education; in fact, when they do, that’s often where problems begin. But any decisions our political representatives make do lead in a way, and what we’re seeing here is slow-motion maintenance.

So what does motivate the provincial government to change?

There are two key examples from this year’s budget: the real estate market, particularly in Vancouver, and the field of social work. In the first case, the government’s quick response to

extended media coverage of rising housing prices, capped by a revealing piece of investigative work by Kathy Tomlinson in the Globe and Mail, is basically damage control. And in the second, the dedication of over $200 million to, among other things, hire 100 social workers, is a direct response to a report analyzing child welfare in the province, written by Bob Plecas, a former minister (a report that has been criticized for its lack of a truly independent eye on the situation).

The point here is not that responding to journalism and commissioned reports is the wrong approach, but that it all takes place at a remove from the people of British Columbia.

A vote already means both less and more than it should: even someone who voted in the Liberal party has more to say than the one-out-of-three selection can, and a vote for a party always promotes more than an individual person likely would, if they knew the full extent of what they were setting into motion. It’s not unlike the findings of Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page in the U.S., in which they wrote that, when it comes to democracy, “When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo has built into the political system, even when fairly large majorities favour policy change, they generally do not get it.”

B.C.’s recent transit referendum and by-elections suggest some dissatisfaction with the Liberals, but it is unlikely a strong campaign from the NDP will solve these systemic problems — as it stands, students (a strong voting block if they wanted to be! we hear again and again) matter a great deal to the provincial government, at least in their current state: largely busy and silent and bored by the game going on in Victoria, occasionally committed to an issue, but always tempted to just look ahead a few years, when their concerns will no longer have the tag “student” attached. If this situation ever changes, it’s impossible to predict how. But it won’t be found in the fifth session of the 40th parliament of the province of British Columbia.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

NEWS Changes coming to Abbotsford campus food options Proposals may make long lineups at Tim Hortons a thing of the past MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE

The Tim Hortons on Abbotsford campus, a popular between-classes food outlet and “UFV Problems” punching-bag, is potentially the site of changes following this semester.

Cameron Roy, the director of ancillary services, says the contract for food vendors on the Abbotsford campus is up this June, including the main cafeteria in B building, as well as the Roadrunner Cafe in A building. After collecting data on student interest through a focus group, Roy, with other UFV staff members, will review proposals from the food services industry this summer, with a goal of a new contract in place for Fall 2016. The current vendor is Sodexo.

“We’re obligated by procurement law to go to market on all of these contracts, and this one’s no exception,” Roy says.

The length of the expiring contract — 10 years — is part of why the Tim Hortons’ reputation is legendary in some circles. “When it was initially built, it was built for a smaller institution, a smaller student body,” Roy says. “It has become

a success obviously, but almost a victim of its own success.”

In contrast to a newer Tim Hortons outlet at the Chilliwack campus at CEP, Abbotsford’s has only one sales till, leading to the familiar sight of long lineups snaking around the doors of the library building. “The waves of students that come in as the class blocks let out almost at the same time just [hit] the Tim Hortons all at once,” Roy says. “It’s like feast or famine.”

With the new proposals, Roy expects some significant improvements, as each vendor vies for the most appealing offer — to both the institution and students.

“There will definitely be some suggestions on the physical layout,” he says.

With proposals from new vendors, there’s even the chance the Abbotsford campus could see entirely new food services — though Roy says it isn’t much of a chance, in the case of Tim Hortons.

“I’d be reluctant to suggest that Tim Hortons wouldn’t be a part of it because they’ve been so successful here at the university,” Roy says. “[But] we’re open for change, absolutely, no question about it, because the institution has grown over the last 10 years.”

Photo: Mitch Huttema

Candidates announced ahead of March SUS elections VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

Photo: Megan Lambert

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With three weeks until the voting period opens for the Student Union Society’s (SUS) annual elections, candidates have been announced.

The executive candidates are: current vice president external Sukhi Brar and Manmeet Sekhon for president, Thanh Ma and Pankaj Kumar Sharma for vice president external, and Ashmeet Kaur Saran and Cameron Findlay Stephen for vice president internal.

The candidates for student representatives are: Alexis Lee Graham and Rooiana Alizada, to represent students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, Sahil Chawla and Arashpreet Tamber for the Faculty of Sciences, Tanya Vanpraseuth for the Faculty of Professional Studies, and Dong Wook (Sunny) Kim for the College of Arts.

The only change in this election is that the elected individuals will be taking office on May 1, rather than April 1. This allows for a transition period for the new members that does not overlap with final exam period and

the end of semester.

“It [was] always problematic having new people expected to work almost full-time hours in that April period,” outgoing president Thomas Davies says. “We hope [the new date] will be a lot more efficient and effective for both the outgoing people, being able to finish off the year so it ties in with the semester end, and the new people getting training.”

This election also means that SUS will again be working with a vice-president internal again. Previous VP internal Ricardo Coppola announced his resignation at the SUS’s November meeting and the society has been operating with the position vacant ever since.

In a change from recent elections, all executive positions have more than one candidate running for them. “[That] is fantastic to see,” Davies says.

Voting for all positions will take place from March 7 to 10 through myUFV. The Cascade will publish candidate interviews in its March 2 issue.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

NEWS Senate removes student evaluations as a standard for promotion for Faculty of Professional Studies VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

At their December meeting, the UFV Senate revised the requirements for tenure and promotions for the Faculty of Professional Studies. Part of this revision included removing student evaluations as a factor for promotion, and replacing them with peer evaluations.

“They’re looking at how to make [student evaluations] useful, so they’re actually getting something they can use, because right now they can’t,” says Ryan Petersen, a student representative of the Senate. “You see people in class, some of them are writing books on them, and others are like, ‘Whatever,’ and they throw it in.”

Student evaluations are used at most universities as a way for faculties to assess their instructors’ teaching skills, as well as a way for students to anonymously share their feedback of the course and professor. Some universities, like SFU and UBC, manage the evaluation process online through their websites. UFV conducts its student evaluations through paper surveys, which are handed out to students and filled out while the teacher is not in the room.

“The form is a really easy anonymous way of being like, ‘I love this course,’ [or] ‘I had issues with this course,’ whatever the case may be,” Petersen says. “It [makes] it so much easier for new students or people who didn’t feel comfortable approaching the instructors or administration.”

Christine Slavik, one of two Faculty of Professional Studies representatives on Senate, says that UFV’s current student evaluation system is not useful to the faculty because it is structured as more of an evaluation of the course and its content, rather than an evaluation of the professor’s teaching skills.

“These things haven’t served much of a purpose,” she says. “They’re kind of automatically done, but they’re not informing people about their teaching skills, and we would like to have a system that does that.”

Despite the flaws in using student evaluations, faculty of science representative and associate physics professor Tim Cooper says that they are still the university’s best option at this point.

“In the past we’ve used student evaluations as the best guide for the reason students are there two or three times a week, every week. They see how it works, plus they know how this course fits in with [other] courses,” he says.

The new requirements for faculty promotion rely on a variety of indicators of teaching and writing work, but no student input. The proposed change brought to Senate states, “Criteria established by academic units for each rank must require evidence of peer review, of teaching and learning and scholarly activities, and confirmation of performance in service roles.”

“Instead of going for what the students think of the teaching, predominantly it will be what the peer thinks of the teaching,” Cooper says. “In a small department like mine, we have very few peers, we’re all friends. So what my buddy says about my teaching is considered more reliable, apparently, than what students would consider my teaching to be. I question that.”

The document also proposes the use of self

evaluations, to be considered along with the peer evaluations.

“Peer evaluation and self evaluation have a possibility of some exaggeration, some inaccuracy, and I’d rather see the student evaluations,” Cooper says.

Slavik explains that when combined, the peer and self evaluations give the facility a stronger sense of each instructor’s teaching abilities.

“The dean will look at: does the way the person self evaluates match up to how [their] peers evaluate, and make a decision,” she says.

In discussion, the majority of Senate agreed that student evaluations, with their current setup of questions and numerical rankings, are not nearly rigorous enough to be considered seriously in faculty decisions. Among other issues, the basic questions and format are in need of updating.

Cooper doesn’t disagree with this.

“Putting my scientist’s hat on, it is true.

Whenever you have a measuring system, there is uncertainty in measurement,” he says. “But that’s true with all three methods ... I have been a peer evaluator for other people. I go to their class, I sit through one lecture. They know I’m coming, so they can give the best lecture of their life and really prepare that one. But I’m not there for the other 14 weeks.”

Cooper sees student evaluations as the best option, and thinks that they should have a role in promotions.

“My personal ideal, would simply be to say that you can’t get promoted to associate professor unless you get a 4.2 on your average evaluations, and you can’t get to full professor without a 4.5,” he says.

“We’re a teaching institution, that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Although professors will now be able to get promoted without the feedback provided through student evaluations, they will continue to be evaluated after their promotions. Slavik explained that there are universities that do not follow this structure, and therefore do not encourage their professors to continue to improve their teaching.

“That is definitely not the intent at UFV,” she says. “The intent is that there would still be some sort of evaluation that would continue to keep people relevant, fresh, and keep their professional development going.”

Student evaluations will not be eliminated completely, but they will no longer be a requirement for promotion.

“Student evaluations will, I hope, still be there, but it’s not clear what role they’ll be playing,” Cooper says.

Petersen also shares this sentiment, and would like to see the evaluations still be used.

“I was a little bit sad that they weren’t going to have them be part of that process,” he says. “Even as broken as it was, I was hoping that they would keep it on and acknowledge that it’s not perfect and then fix it.”

Slavik notes that student evaluations will go under further review by Senate and hopefully be used again as part of the process in the future.

“My understanding around that is that people would like to see that particular evaluation piece be constructed more meaningfully, that we come up with a better system of having the students evaluate professors,” she says.

This week’s results

Next week’s games

Basketball Men’s vs TRU @ Abbotsford Campus Friday Feb 12: W 82-79 Saturday Feb 13: W 67-62

Basketball Men’s vs MRU @ MRU Friday 19: 8 p.m.

Saturday 20: 7 p.m.

Women’s vs TRU @ Abbotsford Campus Friday Feb 12: W 57-56 Saturday Feb 13: W 60-46

Women’s vs MRU @ MRU Friday Feb 19: 6 p.m.

Saturday Feb 20: 5 p.m.

Volleyball Men’s vs DC @ Abbotsford campus Friday Feb 12: L 1-3 Saturday Feb 13: L 0-3 Women’s vs DC @ Abbotsford Campus Friday Feb 12: L 0-3 Saturday Feb 13: L 2-3

Volleyball Men’s vs CBC @CBC Thursday Feb 18: 8 p.m.

Friday Feb 19: 8 p.m.

Women’s vs CBC @CBC Thursday Feb 18: 6 p.m.

Friday Feb 19: 6 p.m.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS SUS hires new food and beverages director The Student Union Society (SUS) has hired Alberto Cortes as their new food and beverages director following the departure of Shane Potter.

Potter’s position of services director was split when a job posting was sent out in the search for a replacement.

“The position now focuses on our food and beverage services throughout the building. That’s the Canoe, Fair Grounds, our catering line, as well as managing the contracts of things like the snack machines and the Coke machines in the building,” says SUS president Thomas Davies.

Photo: UFV Flickr

Potter’s position also included overseeing the health and dental plan, the campus connector shuttle, and the U-Pass program. SUS is currently deciding who will be responsible for each of the services.

“Probably, most will fall broadly under the executive director,” says Davies. “None of them have much day-to-day work. They just operate and a couple times a year we have to do some check-ins

Standardized grades across all departments part of policy discussion

and see how things are going.” Meghan McDonald

VANESSA BROADBENT

is the current executive director.

Chilliwack North campus has potential buyers UFV’s Chilliwack North campus may have potential buyers. The campus has been for sale since UFV’s move to the Canada Education Park campus in 2012. Other than the theatre building, which still hosts classes, rehearsals, performances, a shop for set construction, and an extensive props and costume collection and space booking by the Chilliwack School of Performing Arts or Sto:lo culinary arts program, the campus has not been in use.

The potential buyers include Van Maren Group, a residential developer in Chilliwack, as well as Cascade Christian Christian school. The school announced that they will be working to raise funds to meet the $2.5 million price that UFV is asking for the land.

The sale is not final, but campus planning and resource development director Craig Toews says that the sale could be completed as soon as summer of this year.

—Chilliwack Times

Non-update for new degree proposals Following the announcement that three new degree proposals passed the Degree Quality Assessment Board at its December meeting, no communication has been sent back to UFV regarding the status of three additional proposals reviewed at the Board’s January meeting. “We don’t really have any further information in terms of degree approval,” associate vice-president academic Peter Geller an-

THE CASCADE

Policy revisions are in the works that would bring UFV’s grading standards into line across departments, and with other institutions in BC. Currently, no universitywide standard for percentages exists.

The Undergraduate Education Committee (UEC) of Senate is working on the policy, which is slated to be brought to a Senate meeting this semester for potential approval.

Christine Slavik, a Faculty of Professional Studies representative on Senate, explains that the proposed policy would affect both students planning to complete all their studies at UFV, and students with plans to move on to other universities.

“In order for students to successfully get into graduate studies in other universities, [the committee] were proposing that we have a similar scheme to other universities, so that an A and an A+ at UFV is the same grading scale as the university that someone is trying to go into,” she says.

Vice-provost and associate vice-president academic Peter Geller says that the policy would address a gap at UFV. “The current policy doesn’t quite set that out and the new policy will establish a common grading scheme,” he says.

“Compared to the current system, which basically gives a grade and grade point and no percentage, the key difference [is]

we’re now specifying letter grades with a percentage equivalent.”

Student Union Society (SUS) president Thomas Davies says that part of the idea for the change came about last year when he, along with SUS executives Ryan Petersen and Dylan Thiessen, realized that there was no standardized grading system at UFV. “You can get the same percentage, and get three different letter grades for whatever you may be working on,” he says. “We all agreed that there needed to be consistency for evaluating for scholarships and bursaries, for grad school, for work, for transferring to another school. If there’s no consistency, it’s impossible to assess someone’s performance in a valid manner.”

SUS decided to bring the matter to Senate’s attention. After drafting a policy amendment for the current grading system last summer, Senate asked SUS for their feedback.

Part of the UEC’s process included looking at what grading policies other universities used.

“Looking at 44 institutions, 30 gave a percentage to letter grades,” Geller explains.

“There’s never only one way to do things, but we were looking for a way that worked.”

But as with any broadly applied policy, changes could have ripple effects that some argue would not be entirely beneficial. In this case, adjusting the correlation between letter grades and percentages might mean that, while there would be consistency for all

of UFV, the same would not be true between students within a department from one year to the next. In some departments, this could lead to a depreciation of grades, as the threshold for some letter grades rises.

“I’m not sure [grades] need to be absolutely the same across everything. I think that’s the point of this conversation, that faculties are saying, “What is the benefit to that? Why do we need to have it similar across programs?”

For Geller, the change will bring transparency and be less confusing for students.

“We were hearing feedback from lots of students that when you don’t have a common grading scheme, there can be variations in grading,” he says. “It might not be clear what that letter grade and that grade point represents, so it’s just a matter of being more transparent about that and having a shared understanding across the institution.”

The policy has already been held back once by the UEC for revisions and clarifications, and will likely inspire debate at Senate once it is submitted as a motion.

Though Davies says he hopes the policy will be changed according to SUS’s input by the Fall 2016 semester, the policy is still far from a guaranteed approval.

“I’m not sure the whole thing has been fleshed out enough to make sound arguments one way or another at this point,” Slavik says. “Whatever we do, we want it to be fair to students.”

nounced to Senate.

The degrees would be: a theatre major, a bachelor of media arts degree, and a bachelor of educa-

Corrections

tion degree. “I don’t why there isn’t a more regular and timely response from the DQAB,” VP academic

An editorial published in the January 20 issue about program reviews stated the process would be conducted in private. Reviews will be discussed in private

Eric Davis says. “[But] I’m expecting [the provincial

only at the committee level — a detailed summary and list of recommendations will still be made available to Senate and posted on the university’s website.

approval process] is going to go faster. Because it can’t sustain this level of not functioning at optimal

An opinion article about advertising on campus in the January 27 issue stated the Coast Capital Peer Resource Centre “remains mysteriously closed and

level.”

apparently understaffed.” The centre has hired its one part-time staff member and two work-study students, but has yet to open its central volunteer-run

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resource desk.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

OPINION UFV International: a good kind of global warming SONJA KLOTZ THE CASCADE

Photo: UFV Flickr

Of the many different departments that we have at UFV, I find that UFV International’s Global Lounge is one of the warmest and most welcoming on campus. Not only does the staff greet you with a smile, they also ask you about your day and how your studies are going.

I know that I could walk into the Global Lounge and ask the coordinators quick questions about almost anything without the hassle of making appointments. Even though I am a domestic student, it is nice to know that I am part of a greater global community.

It is one thing for me to say this as a Canadian student living here, but, after studying abroad in England a few years ago, I find that being part of a university’s international department is like having a home away from home in many ways.

First, it’s the only place where the university can help students get settled, in regard to international visas, academic transfers, or simply geographical orientation. Second, it helps students connect with the various university communities. There is nothing more intimidating and overwhelming than going to a different country and having to learn cross-cultural ways of living without

sharing a sense of belonging or cultural identity.

Although the language barrier was non-existent in my case, I still felt out of place in how I interacted with the local communities here. But once I got involved at the Global Lounge, I began to feel part of a greater community. I made some amazing friends, of whom I am still in contact with, while also expanding my worldview. Not only did I share many laughs and meals with fellow international students and university staff, I was also able to get a glimpse of how much impact a university’s international department can have through studying abroad.

Whenever I walk past the Global Lounge here at UFV, I see people laughing and enjoying each other’s company. There is a culture of belonging, security, and diversity. For some it is a place where they learn about the various cultures represented at UFV; for others it is a vehicle to new networks, new social engagements, and new thought. Whether you are a staff member, faculty member, or a domestic or international student, UFV International is a good place to be.

Resetting SUS: What to look for in the new batch of candidates ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE

Imagine for a moment that you are very powerful. Imagine that you have the ability to sway the university in a new and better direction. Now stop imagining, you dummy, because you do have that ability! UFV’s Student Union Society (SUS) elections are coming in just under a month, and what the heck are you going to do about it?

Vote!

But who should we elect? Is there some magic quality to look for in a candidate? No — I’d say there are three.

Experience First of all, experience with SUS itself is an asset. The more the candidate understands their potential position, the better they can serve. On top of that, the longer and closer they have worked with SUS, the more likely they are to see its weak points and therefore address them effectively.

Experience related to their specific position is important, too.

For example, a VP external who has never dealt with the external world (e.g. customer service, human resources) is probably going to face a learning curve they aren’t prepared for. People are scary

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and cruel! Look for their previous job and volunteer experience and see if it lines up with the responsibilities of the position they’re running for.

Transparency SUS has been rather notorious for its mysteriousness. Meeting minutes don’t get posted online, interviews are difficult to procure, and the email information on some parts of their website is out of date. It sucks. It is impossible for us as students to contribute positively on the periphery of SUS if we don’t even know what their problems are. What’s with all the weird funding decisions? The frequent redefinition of what makes a club legitimate? What’s that fancy plaque outside your office compensating for? Let us know, SUS! We want to help!

With an exec who, at the very least, is willing to ensure that meeting minutes are made public, we as students would not only be more compassionate towards whatever the organization’s speed bumps are, but we would be more able to help. I don’t mean to suggest that there will be a sudden surge of students throwing petitions everywhere, but nobody can protest a pipeline, for example, if they don’t know that one is being built.

Leadership A good leader is not, first and foremost, a boss. By the same token, a good SUS executive is a fellow student, not a descendant of some royal university bloodline. They should engage with students on a student level by being accessible and good-natured.

They should be compassionate to student problems beyond the walls of their offices. They need to care about the people they’re representing.

But do not be swayed by accessibility alone; a good leader also needs to be able to make decisions. None of this “Uh, oh, well, what do you want?” crap. When given two uncertain paths, it is better to go down the wrong one and learn from the experience than to pace hopelessly between them. The ability to make decisions combined with an understanding of and concern for what students want and need will take SUS leadership to a new level. A SUPER SUS, if you will.

It is probably not possible that any one candidate will have all these qualities perfected, but they are the ones we should be looking for as voters. An experienced, honest, assertive, and down-to-earth human being is what SUS needs to begin to heal whatever mysterious wounds it has developed. And it’s all up to us students to elect such people.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

OPINION

Valentine’s Day vs. Family Day: which dumb holiday is better?

JULIANNE HUFF CONTRIBUTOR

Some holidays and special days are time-honoured traditions.

Some have a purpose that reach back through centuries of human history. Others are, well, useless — or at least have become so. In February, we have two of these, only one of which we actually get a day off for.

There’s the oh-so-important February 14, the dreaded Valentine’s Day. If you’re in a relationship, you better have a present and something planned. If you’re single, this is supposedly the day that will cement you as just that.

But if you look at the beginnings and original traditions of Valentine’s Day, it’s actually quite romantic and sweet. According to a BBC article, Valentine’s Day arose as a tradition in ancient Rome when people were not allowed to marry, as it was banned by Emperor Claudius II. He seemed to believe that married men made bad soldiers — whatever that’s supposed to mean. There are many stories, but essentially there was a priest named Valentine who felt this was unfair and married couples in secret.

He was put in jail, where he fell in love with the

jailer’s daughter. Before he was killed on February 14, he sent a letter to his love signed, “From your Valentine.”

A pretty story, right? While some people fall for the commercialism of the day today, others have kept the simplicity and romantic side of the holiday. It’s a day that essentially celebrates something you should be celebrating every day: the relationship you have with the person you love.

Then there’s Family Day. Sure, I get it; it’s a great idea for people to bring everything back to the family, to have a day off to do something with them. But here’s the real question: how many people actually do something with their family on this day?

Family Day is not a national statutory holiday, being observed in only Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. The holiday was first observed in Alberta, and BC is the most recent to join the other provinces. But let’s consider the fact that for some reason BC is not included in the “family” that is Canadian Family Day. Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan all share the same day, but BC has Family Day one week earlier. So, BC is more like the forgotten uncle of provinces.

Of course, we know why this became a holiday — it’s so that we could have a day off in February! Don’t get me wrong, I love having the day off. But I didn’t even really see my family on this day. So I can appreciate the appeal, but has it gotten so bad that we specifically need a day off to hang out with our family?

So, which one is better: the one with a nice story and long-standing tradition, or the day off?

[Editor’s Note: And it wasn’t even an extra day off — it got grouped in with reading week!!] Like these days, the answer doesn’t really matter. For now, I’ll stick with the discounted chocolates of February 15.

illustration: Danielle Collins

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

OPINION

S Curtailed commentary on current conditions illustration: Danielle Collins

Coldplay can’t compete Jeffrey Trainor

All food is poison Alex Rake

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Whether it is for the commercials, the array of dips that can be eaten at your friend’s house, or the game itself, most people seem to enjoy the Super Bowl.

For some, it’s the annual Halftime Show. The Halftime Show has grown to be one of the biggest musical spectacles of the year, but this year’s performance by Coldplay was average at best.

The point that cemented their mediocre show was when the band cut away and Bruno Mars began to sing “Uptown Funk,” quickly followed by Beyoncé with her new single “Formation.” It felt like the whole stadium had a newfound energy.

Mars and Beyoncé eventually met each other on stage to continue Mars’ tune when suddenly the members of Coldplay appeared from behind them like the awkward neighbourhood kid who you don’t really know but always wants to hang out with you. Needless to say, this was not the setting for Coldplay. But maybe they can get a spot in the “Puppy Bowl” Halftime Show next year. I feel that would be more their speed.

The dietary recommendations the internet offers us are terrible and confusing. You shouldn’t eat dairy because it causes acne and messes with your stomach and will kill you. On the other hand, cutting dairy from your diet will cause your bones to crack, mess with your stomach, and kill you.

You will die and it’s all dairy’s fault.

We need more balanced recommendations.

Articles will too often argue for one drastic change to your diet and fail to mention the potential negatives. It’s impossible for the common person to do proper research if writers don’t take the responsibility of balanced reporting seriously. We will die and it’s all the writers’ fault.

Until health websites and internet dieticians learn to add a little nuance to their reporting, I suggest we just eat whatever makes us feel good.

I will put a whole chicken down my throat if I feel like it. I will eat three tubs of ice cream, and throw it all up with a smile. To hell with your subjectivity, dieticians; I will operate on my own.

I will die full and jolly and it will be all my fault.

“Student-led” leads to student dread

I realized 10 minutes into marking up my “sample paragraph,” where I was supposed to find spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, that thirdyear English students don’t know how to write properly. At all. We spent a total of 50 minutes on that exercise. (“Five zero!” I’ve had to clarify for my shocked friends who have listened to my complaints.)

Not only do third-year students not understand the rules surrounding the use of a semicolon, but they are also incapable of composing a piece of writing that is clear, concise, or in some cases even readable. In my five classes this semester, I have come across maybe two pieces of coherent student writing. There goes $3,000 of tuition wasted on “peer-led learning” and “student-guided workshops.” No wonder people say an English degree means nothing — to most students at UFV, it’s just that.

Megan Lambert

Give us a garage Valerie Franklin

I’m not going to complain about the impossibility of trying to find a parking spot at UFV because you already know about it, either from hearing your classmates complain or from you yourself being trapped in the endless gridlocked maze that is the parking lot at 10 a.m. on a weekday.

But I am reluctantly going to suggest a solution: a multi-level parking garage.

I say “reluctantly” because it wouldn’t exactly beautify the campus — but something needs to be done about the parking situation. UFV is a commuter campus which most students travel to by car, and it’s bursting at the seams as enrolment perpetually increases. The current parking lots aren’t filling the need, especially not when the arena next door clogs them up with hundreds of extra cars whenever a country star comes to town.

We can’t build much farther out, so maybe it’s time to start building up. A prime location would be the gravel parking lot behind C building. (You know, the one with the huge potholes — another chronic UFV problem that would finally be solved by a parking garage.)

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Women’s basketball team hits VANESSA BROADBENT

THE CASCADE / PHOTOS

“We have to be ready to kick some ass,” Al Tuchscherer, the Cascade women’s basketball coach, says to the team at their first meeting of the weekend, the night before the first of two games against the UBC Okanagan Heat. All eleven girls are sitting cross-legged on the room’s two beds as Tuchscherer stands at the front of the room.

The team, along with the men’s basketball team, have only arrived at their hotel in Kelowna 15 minutes ago, after a three-anda-half-hour drive.

This weekend is important to the team and a lot is at stake. Not only are they playing the third ranked team in the Explorer Division of Canada West (the Cascades are fourth), but losing these games would essentially end the team’s playoff hopes. However, if the Cascades sweep both games, they’ll have new life in the playoff

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race with just four regular season games remaining. It’s a make-orbreak weekend.

“We’ve had a really inconsistent season, so we’ve put ourselves in a bit of a hole here,” Tuchscherer says. “We’re not sitting in a playoff position right now, and it’s important that we get [there] …

It’s better late than never to pull everything together.”

The girls listen intently as Tuchscherer goes over plays for the next day’s game. The singing and laughter that was on the bus earlier is replaced with silence as Tuchscherer emphasizes how much is riding on these games.

After the meeting, the girls grab some food. Some head for the Spaghetti Factory across the street from the hotel, while others opt for the nearby A&W — anything quick. There’s not much time for anything else when they have a big game the next day.

The next day the team is up early for breakfast, and at their morning practice by nine. The gym at the UBCO campus is empty — the bleachers haven’t even been pulled out yet — but that

doesn’t mean the team isn’t nervous. With nine hours until the game, there’s no time for slacking off, and Tuchscherer’s morning practice routines makes sure that they don’t.

“As the season goes on, you need to be realistic and let your players know that there’s a little more at stake,” Tuchscherer says.

“As coach, you’ve got to kind of make them understand the urgency, but not to the point where they’re freaking out about it.

You’ve got to sense that.”

After practice, the girls head back to their hotel for study hall, something that Tuchscherer has added to the team’s road-trip schedule this season. With a younger team and a lot of first-year players, the group needs a bit more encouragement to get their homework done while on the road. The team heads to a conference hall that they’ve booked in the hotel and, without any push from Tuchscherer, they all start on their homework.

“It’s different for every team that we have,” Tuchscherer explains. “For a while we had a really good group that was veterans.

We had a lot of fourth- and fifth-year kids on the team, and they know what to do, so you don’t really have to chase them around and you don’t have to be on them.”

But this year, with two first-year and three second-year players, the team is younger and a little less experienced.

“There’s some teams that you have to chase all over the place because they’re young and they don’t really get it,” he says. “This group’s a little different … they just kind of want to study.”

Course work is important to Tuchscherer, and making sure that the team is always on top of their game academically has served them well, with three graduated players currently in med school, one in chiropractic school, and many in various other professions.

“It’s almost a sports cliché — you’re here to get your education — but it’s true,” he says. “I think that’s why they are here, and in our program they understand that is why they’re here, and they’re using basketball as a vehicle to get their education.”

But academics aside, the team still needs to put everything they’ve got into these games.

With under two hours until game time, the team gets ready.

With dance music blaring from someone’s phone and banter between the girls, it’s easy to forget just how important this game is.

That changes as the team steps onto the court. They warm up on one side of the court while UBCO is on the other, the tension between the two teams already growing.

But when the game starts, there’s no time for tension. All that matters is winning — and the team does just that. With a final score of 65-50, and 15 points from fourth-year forward Kayli Sartori, who’s leading Canada West in scoring, as well as 15 from guard Sydney Williams — the most of the night from the team — they’re one game down, one to go.

They’re proud of their win, but Tuchscherer reminds them to not slack — UBCO will be coming in stronger for the second game.

“Whenever you start a game with that hunger it needs to keep going,” he says to the girls in the locker room after the game.

“They’re just getting warmed up … They’re gonna come at you and they’ve got the personnel to do that.”

The team may have defeated UBCO and be one win closer to their goal of nationals, but they still have one more game to face, and losing that would cancel out all the hard work of this game.

The next day isn’t much different, but it’s clear that the team is getting tired. It’s Saturday, so after morning practice Tuchscherer lets the team take a break from studying. After the team lunch at the nearby Spaghetti Factory, most of the players head back to sleep before their next game.

For Kayli Sartori, as well as the other girls, being on the road is a lot harder than playing home games, but that hasn’t stopped the fourth-year player from doing well. After taking a year off from the sport, this is Sartori’s first season back and she’s already been awarded two conference star of the week awards, is leading Canada West in scoring, and is in the top 10 for rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals.

“Your whole routine gets thrown,” she says. “At home I have a completely different routine than when I’m on the road. Here, it’s like your job. You show up to the gym, you get ready together, you go to the floor together. It’s different.”

Aside from a completely different schedule, being on the road comes with a lot less free time, and therefore less mental space to

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

the road and beats the Heat work and focus on school. This means that the athletes have to balance the little time they get, but that’s easier said than done.

“We don’t have any balance in our lives,” explains Sartori. “When it’s season, it’s season.”

“There’s a lot of sacrifice for some things. You see your friends going out and having a good time and having that sense of freedom,” Williams says. “There are sacrifices, but at the end of the day, you do it because you love it and there’s so much more of a reward to it.”

But it doesn’t take long for the girls to adjust to the craziness that comes with being a university athlete. After all, they’ve been balancing school and sports long before university.

“You get used to it,” Sartori adds. “I feel like every girl has had that schedule and that commitment and it doesn’t really change much. The only thing that gets a little different is the intensity of school.”

Being this close to the end of season, every game counts, and like the night before, the team shows how much this game means to them. UBCO’s efforts to come back stronger are no match for Williams and fellow guard Shayna Cameron’s on-fire scoring. Cameron’s 18 points and Williams’ 19 points, along with Sartori’s 19, bring the team a 90-44 victory over the Heat — their best offensive game this season.

With two wins under their belt, the team feels ready to face the rest of the season.

“It was such a great stepping stone for what’s to come in the following weeks,” Sartori says. “It wasn’t just a threepoint win — that was a blowout. That was showing them that we are here to compete and we’re ready to go.”

Despite the craziness of being on the road every other weekend and having to balance a full course load on top of basketball, for Cameron, and all of the other girls on the team, it’s worth it.

“For me, basketball is my escape route, and I can see that with a lot of the other girls,” she says. “Being able to come together and achieve something together is probably one of the hardest things you can do with such different dynamics and personalities and characters.”

“It’s a love-hate relationship when it comes to basketball,” Sartori adds. “You don’t want to get up at six in the morning to go to practice at seven, and then go to classes for six hours and then go back to practice for the evening.

You don’t love those parts of it, but you do it because of the big picture, because of the little things and the little goals you reach and the big games you get to play.”

“There’s so much more to it than the wins or the points — it’s that feeling when you know you’ve put your heart or your effort into it,” Williams says. “It’s the little things behind the scenes that, unless you’re able to experience that, you don’t really know what it’s like.”

It’s obvious that the girls are exhausted after the game, and they load the bus less than five minutes after the men’s game ends. The team is much closer to their goal of playoffs. That doesn’t mean there’s time to relax — but for now, with another three-and-a-half-hour drive home, it’s all they can do.

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CULTURE & EVENTS Lunar New Year celebrations both welcoming and delicious ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE

I had never been inside Baker House before. Why should I have been? I live elsewhere and I’m an antisocial wreck. But on February 5, I heard whisperings of an event that I just had to attend.

As part of the Lunar New Year celebrations happening on campus, UFV Global Engagement hosted a dumpling fest in the Baker House kitchen.

In other words, free food. When I entered, I was blown away by all the activity: here, 20 people frantically chopping vegetables; there, a team

running back and forth to hand out free soup.

Everyone was smiling and happy to help, jammed into a busy kitchen space, and it was wonderful.

Never before have I seen so many UFV students united in a cause, except for maybe last year’s protests against the shutting down of the Writing Centre. The free food is obviously a great draw for students, but more than that, it was a learning experience, since everyone was involved in making the dumplings. And even more than that, it was a great example of the camaraderie that life on a university campus ought to foster.

Bravo, UFV Global Engagement and Baker House.

You filled my belly and my heart.

Heavy metal bands, a local bowling alley, and a genre dictionary Fifth in Metal Coalition concert series lights up downtown Abbotsford GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

Heav y metal is one hell of a genre, with dozens upon dozens of sub-genres ranging from sludge metal like Morbrus Chron, to black metal like Deaf heaven, to death metal like Behemoth. Get two metalheads in a room and ask them if band X is one sub-genre or another — occasionally these discussions can get out of hand, but the one thing that any metalhead can agree on is that metal is fucking awesome.

Last Friday I got to see three bands at Brother’s Bowling downtown, and they were each representative of a different style of metal. The fifth volume in Abbotsford’s “Metal Coalition,” the night saw NeverAnother, Obsidian, and Iron Kingdom take the stage and blow everyone away.

NeverAnother started the night off, and they carried with them a sense of metal’s late-‘90s form. With a liberal dose

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of punk rock and a splash of classic rock, NeverAnother combined their more intense moments with soft bridges that were reminiscent of classic bands like Boston, picking out some sweet, dulcet tones on their guitars before launching back into their grinding, wailing choruses. Thanks to frontman R ick Lemperes’ staccato singing style, the band interspersed more brutal moments with sounds that were seemingly inspired by bands such as Kansas and Journey.

Up next was Obsidian, featuring Abbotsfordian Daniel Clark on guitar and backup vocals. I would personally classif y Obsidian as a melodic death metal band, but there’s no doubt that some more knowledgeable metalhead will correct me on that count.

There’s no question that Obsidian were the best kind of loud — drummer Steven Stass alone was deafening, and every pound of his kick-drum saw drinks quivering, like the T-Rex’s introduction scene in the original Jurassic Park. It was a miracle that

the other instruments could be heard, never mind the vocals.

The equipment must have been close to burning out, but that didn’t stop lead singer and guitarist Jason Campbell from asking for more volume. And believe me, it was worth it. Campbell, Clark, and bassist Aurelia Falaize constantly switched positions — even though the stage was on the smaller size, they were always on the move. It was a far more aggressive sound than NeverAnother, with almost no breaks of softer, more laid-back instrumentation. It was the kind of metal that I enjoy listening to — the kind that feels like a solid wall of sound smacking you in the face over and over again.

While that style of metal is by far my favourite, I was blown away by the third band, Iron Kingdom. While they were setting up, it quickly dawned on me that the night’s final act would be the most theatrical of them all. They brought additional lights and set up a banner behind their drummer, Joey Paul. They wore studded leather

vests and bullet belts, and lead singer and guitarist Chris Osterman wore what can only be described as a the outfit of an ‘80s hair metal fetishist’s outfit. I just knew they’d be a mix of the old-school first wave of metal — the likes of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath — but I also had a feeling that, as they were the youngest band on display, they’d also carry a heavy dose of today’s metal.

I was right.

From the first note it was clear Iron Kingdom carried similarities to Iron Maiden, but they just as easily shared characteristics with modern-day powermetal bands like Blind Guardian.

Osterman carried the performance with a display of technical skill that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the night’s performers. From his warbling falsetto, which wouldn’t have stood out of place in an Ozzy Osbourne song, to his confident shredding on his guitar, Osterman was like some unholy bastard child of Buckethead’s guitar-playing and Rob Halford’s singing.

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CULTURE & EVENTS

Photograph: Mitch Huttema

Dodgers, Blessed, and other local bands shake a sandwich shop GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

Who knew sandwiches and punk music go hand in hand?

Earlier this month, O’Neill’s Home Cooking in downtown Abbotsford hosted two bands (and one surprising guest). “Sup At O’Neill’s,” the name for these intimate little concerts, is one of those ideas that on the surface seems a little strange; after all, you’re combining some incredibly talented, supremely loud musicians with a teeny-tiny stage in a sandwich shop. Admittedly, the best sandwich shop in town, but still. Despite the fact these shows have apparently been held for just over two years now, it would seem to be an incongruous mix.

That wasn’t the case.

The night saw roughly 40 people in the somewhat tight confines of O’Neill’s, with chairs up against the wall and tables neatly stacked in the corner. Not that many people sat down — the musicians saw to that, keeping the majority

of the crowd on their feet, heads bobbing to the sounds.

The evening’s opening act was a performer I’d been waiting to see in action for over two years now: none other than CIV L 101.7 FM station manager Aaron Levy, guitar in hand, and ably supported by musicians from local bands M ALK and Cheap High — an all-star cast, if you will. If you’ve spent any time at all around CIV L, or just in the SUB in general, you’ll probably have heard Lev y dropping some sick rhymes, but that night at O’Neill’s saw him perform a somewhat more soulful, almost bluesy style of music — for all but one song, that is.

With his final act of the evening, Lev y did what Lev y does best: rap. A medley of Lev y’s, starting with Drake’s “Hyfr” before ending in Run the Jewels’ “Sea Legs”. It was the performance I’d been waiting for, and while the cramped location saw his vocals being intermittently drowned out by his performing partners on bass and drum, Lev y stood out. I only wished he’d rapped more.

Up next were Mission-based heav y weights Dodgers, who recently released a new single, “Orphans, Fools, and

Thieves.” The last time I’d seen Dodgers was almost a whole year ago, but their performance at O’Neill’s was just as slick as I’d hoped for.

The night’s closing act, Blessed, is working on a split EP with Dodgers, and after seeing the two bands perform in a single night, I’m drooling in anticipation.

Blessed’s performance was as intense as I’ve come to expect. They opened with “Swim,” the first song I heard them perform back when I randomly walked into a bar last summer. Since that moment, I’ve been listening to it constantly. They also performed a cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” and it was clear throughout their entire performance that the band is really settling into their groove, fine-tuning their performances, gelling. It’s going to be an interesting spring and summer between that split EP with Dodgers being released and Blessed’s own debut drawing nearer.

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CULTURE & EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS FEB 18

Voices of the Valley The Reach 5 p.m.

Climate Change and Eco-Advocacy in the Valley

2:40 to 4 p.m.

B101, Abbotsford campus

FEB 19 FEB 20

Celebrating Diverse African Cultures

Library rotunda (Abbotsford campus) 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Celebrating Black Canadian History The Reach 1 to 4 p.m.

Dennis Bouwman & Nathaniel Krikke 7:30 p.m.

SippChai Cafe

Photo: Glen Ess

FEB 23

Fraser Valley Professional Writers Association with Jen Sookfong Lee Gian’s Indian Restaurant 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Drawing sessions with the Fraser Valley Graphic Guild Kariton Art Gallery 7 to 9 p.m.

CiVL Radio homelessness 14-hour broadcast marathon 2 p.m. on 101.7 FM

FEB 24

FEB 25 14

Mental health awareness club: Create a Vision 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Green, Abbotsford campus

Business after Business mixer 4:30 p.m.

SUB Great Hall

Sxwoxwiyam: Stories of Long Ago shares Sto:lo oral histories with a new audience GLEN ESS THE CASCADE

Storytelling is an art form, and oral storytelling traditions are a major, influential aspect in the development and maintaining of a culture — but sadly, once written down, storytelling often falls by the wayside.

Thankfully, UFV embraced this proud tradition by holding Sxwoxwiyam: Stories of Long Ago on February 3 at the CEP campus. The event saw professional storytellers from the Sto:lo Nation lead almost 70 students through story after story, some forgotten, some more well-known, all with significance.

UFV’s elder-in-residence, Eddie Gardner, started the event off with a traditional Sto:lo song before giving a short explanation of the importance of storytelling, as well as the definition of Sxwoxwiyam: a mythic era of the Sto:lo Nation, when the world was younger and a far more fantastical, magical place to live.

The first two storytellers, David Gutierrez and Mary Sandoval, took us into that world, and for a long moment I felt adrift, lost in their voices. With clarity and measured tones, the brother-and-sister duo took turns taking their audience into a world they’d spun with their words. I enjoy reading myths. I find the anecdotal nature of such stories and how they always have a meaningful purpose, some lesson to teach, to be fascinating. But what I found more fascinating was how easily Sandoval and Gutierrez were able to turn these Sto:lo stories, so similar in form and function, into something far more immersive than books.

The whole crowd of students was lost, paying close attention as they learned about why thunder and lightning came during storms, and why mosquitoes bother children. It was a unique experience, and they were only the first.

The second speaker of the day was Joseph Dandurand, a member of the Kwantlen First Nation. Dandurand is a published poet and playwright, known for plays such as Please Do Not Touch the Indians.

Dandurand — easygoing and self-deprecating — had a wry sense of humour, and he often took time between reading from his vast collection of poems to joke around with his assembled audience. His recitations examined life on the reserves and his grandmother’s experiences in the residential school system. While his stories weren’t part of Sxwoxwiyam, they resonated with purpose and meaning.

The afternoon’s final speaker, Glen Malloway — who started after Gutierrez and Sandoval had had a second round — continued on in a similar manner, being both purposeful and personable. Malloway, a UFV alumnus of the social services program, is a creative, intricate storyteller in word as well as images: it is Malloway’s drawing of Pesk’a (a hummingbird) that serves as the logo for Aboriginal Access Services here at UFV. His storytelling was beautifully crafted.

Between these four artists and the audience they drew, a lot of work was done to rebuke the idea that the oral tradition is in decline. The crowd that gathered to hear of Sto:lo tales from Sxwoxwiyam will remember those stories for a long time.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS Eugenia Sojka opens portal into Poland JEFFREY TRAINOR THE CASCADE

Photographs: ???

Photo: University of Silesia Flickr

Have you ever wanted to travel abroad, but also wanted to get credits towards your degree at the same time? Well, Eugenia Sojka from the University of Silesia might be the person you have been looking for.

Earlier this month, Sojka held an information session in the Abbotsford campus’s Global Lounge to share information about her home university in Katowice, Poland. Sojka is the director of the Canadian Studies Centre and Institute of English Cultures and Literatures at the university, and is hoping to drum up some students to attend the University of Silesia in upcoming semesters as part of a partnership with UFV. (The University of Silesia is one of more than 50 universities UFV has partnerships with in the study abroad program.

These partnerships traverse the globe, from Australia all the way to the United Arab Emirates.)

For some, the thought of studying abroad can easily bring dreaded dollar signs to mind, but within the partnership program student fees are paid to UFV, and are the same as if the student was staying here in the Fraser Valley. In terms of Silesia, Sojka noted that living costs are not too high either, with housing only costing about $200/month on average to rent.

In her presentation, Sojka ran down the needto-know points about the university: its location,

regional attractions, and study options: the university offers quite a few English courses, while other courses can be done in English as a directed study. Most of these English offerings are found within Sojka’s fields at the Canadian Studies Centre and English Cultures and Literatures.

However, Sojka noted that if you were to have a strong itch to fully immerse yourself in Polish culture, there are intensive Polish language courses through the School of Polish Language and Culture at the university. Sojka mentioned these have traditionally been quite successful.

“They have a special program and we know that it works,” Sojka said. “Students come from various places all over the world, and after one year they are able to pursue their studies in Polish … it’s quite magical.”

In terms of regional attractions, local art galleries and sporting or concert venues were brought up, as well as various student groups and associations at the university. However, Sojka’s main points revolved around the ease of accessibility to the rest of Europe from the university.

“Once you are in Europe it’s very inexpensive [to travel],” she said, mentioning that she once caught a f light to Milan, Italy for only eight dollars, and that she had to pay “more to get to the airport” than for her f light. In conjunction with this, she pointed out that Krakow is only 65 kilometres away (about a 40-minute drive), and is a major hub for transport in Europe, while also being a must-see city.

FASHION

How to stay in style: go out of style DOMINGO FLORES FASHIONISTA EXTRAORDINAIRE

So what exactly is “fashion?” We’re bombarded with this idea that one thing, one style, one way of appearing is considered the fashion of the day. But what if I told you that the popular way of dressing today is dressing however the hell you want?

The fashion world has increasingly embraced the cult of the individual. The idea, the notion, that each of us is a unique, special little snowf lake has begun to gain traction in the world of designer clothes.

It’s no longer solely the province of anecdotal stories to encourage children to be themselves. It’s grown beyond the PSAs that preach a break from the pressures of conformity.

Individuality has finally taken its rightful place in the realm of that most sacred, most important aspect of humanity, that province of thought that separates us from the animals and plants and all the other lesser lifeforms. Individuality has become fashionable.

This is, of course, something rather difficult to wrap one’s head around. Even I, a fashionista, one who has studied the ebbs and f lows of fashion, struggle to understand this new way of being. Historically, fashion was something that everyone agreed on, donned, and then discarded when the next trend came along. But when the trend is being a unique individual ... well, things become rather murky.

Individuality means refusing to follow the trends that the now unfashionable, the old school of thought, continue to

abide by. To these conformists, trends come and go, and while they’re in, everyone has to jump on them. So, for example, let us say that f lared jeans and platform shoes were manufactured in surplus. Then everyone who is anyone would immediately start wearing them.

But those people wouldn’t be fashionable according to the theory of individuality. So anyone — and that is to say everyone — who follows these hidebound, luddite methods of fashion should henceforth be considered to be out of style even though they are, according to the old way of thinking, in style.

Therefore, the only way to be truly in style is to be out of style, to deny style, to refute it, and to cast aside any ambition towards being “in” — to give in to the “out.”

But how can anyone manage such a truly impressive feat?

Just how can an individual reach this fashionable, nay, spiritual nirvana?

Give in to the quirks of your personality, and clothe, accessorize, decorate, and visually enhance yourselves to the point where no one can be said to look even remotely similar to you. Become yourself, separated from and unrelated to the crowd of people, the unfashioned masses of humanity.

Cast aside your newly bought infinity scarves and throw away your sexy new slim-fit, pastel-coloured pants. Garb yourself in the sweetness that is individuality, where no two people dress the same. The new trend is no trend.

Wait, hang on ...

If we all decide to give up on following trends ... isn’t that following a trend …? But that means ...

Shit.

Illustration: Danielle Collins

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

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STUDY BREAK Crossword

Last week’s answers

February Fun

Across

Across

3. First flower of the year. (6)

1. CONJOINED

7. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ break, the best part of February. (7)

3. BIBLIOPHILE

8. Blossoms before they’re blossoms. (4)

6. FOREWORD

9. Pink trees in late February. (8)

9. SYNOPSIS

11. An extra day on the 29th. (We have one this year!) (4, 4)

10. SCRIVENER

12. Stat holiday to bring you closer to your relatives. (6, 3)

11. GUTENBERG

Down

Down

2. NOVEL 1. Sweets in a box. (10)

4. PAPYRUS

2. Fat Tuesday. (5, 4)

5. SWORD

4. The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ month, with only 28 days. (8)

7. SOOKFONG

5. Ice that turns your grass white in the morning. (5)

8. WESTCOAST

6. Your sweetheart on the 14th. (9)

10. SPINE

10. Almost _ _ _ _ _ _ _ through the semester! (7)

Horoscopes Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21

Hair is unlucky for you this week. But don't worry — you'll look great with a shaved head.

Need change in your life? Put a tip jar on your desk! Not that it'll get you much, since we're all broke students.

Stop cursing your enemies. It's working.

They're getting suspicious.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19

If you put new batteries in your clock, maybe you'll stop being late all the time and people won't be mad at you. #lifehack

They say sleeping is good for you. Have you tried it recently? No?

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18

Move into a studio. Wear big glasses.

Pickle everything. Write the word "love" on a chalkboard and take a photo.

Pretend it makes you happy.

Stop taking your fortune cookies so seriously. Besides, this horoscope is at least twice as accurate.

Weaning yourself off your Facebook addiction by joining Instagram was possibly the worst decision of your life.

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21

Denim is your spirit animal. Wear that Canadian tuxedo with pride.

Beware of cat hair, glitter, bad dates, and anything else that clings.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20

BY ANTHONY BIONDI

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22

Peanut butter. That is all.

SPACED 16

Star Signs by Moira Mysteriosa

The stars say there is birthday cake in your near future! They also say you should share.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

Shuffle AARON LEVY CIVL STATION MANAGER

CHARTS You Say Party You Say Party

01 02

Jordan Klassen Javelin

03

David Bowie Blackstar

54-40 "Baby Ran" Thirty years later and we still don't know why she ran away.

I've got to say, even though Osborne suggests here that he knows one reason why, he's super cryptic about explaining exactly what that reason is. If you wonder if he has a job though, visit Tractorgrease. com, okay?

04

Basia Bulat Good Advice

05

Dressy Bessy Kingsized

06

Blitzen Trapper All Across This Land

07

The Arcs Yours, Dreamily

54-40 "I Go Blind" It's not my fault that I'm not as pleasing to look at as your mirror, but I doubt that every time you look at me you lose your sense of sight, either momentarily or permanently. Yes, obviously, he's probably using it as a metaphor, but c'mon, money by yr mouth.

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Oh Village Ocris

09

Suede Night Thoughts

Station Manager Aaron Levy almost interviewed 54-40 once, but it didn't work out, because he was lost. Singer Neil Osborne appears in Chilliwack this weekend!

54-40 "Love You All" Possibly the hippiest of 54-40 tunes, the exclamation of amorous and affectionate appreciation for err'one, as we say these days, Neil really does his best croon on the reprise of this chorus, vamping his vocals into the kind of plaintive wail that Mike Tyson mysteriously adores.

54-40 "Since When" The literal comeback. Not that they were gone for very long, but for alt-rock radio listeners in the late '90s / early aughts, the jaunty keys and catchy, barely-short-of-a-singalongstyle chorus comes clearly back to mind on first recollection. Those were the days, lost, since when?

10

LunchMoney Lewis Ain't Too Cool

11

The Sylvia Platters Make Glad the Day

12

Young Galaxy Falsework

13 Roots Renaissance Band

Beautiful Nubia and the

Taabaku

14

Foreign Diplomats Princess Flash

15

Homeshake Midnight Snack

16

VEGA INTL. Night School

Neon Indian

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John Grant Grey Tickles, Black Presence

18

Modern Space Before Sunrise

19

Young Rival Interior Light

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Wild Nothing Life of Pause

Buckley and Vidal go head to head in documentary Best Of Enemies

PANKAJ SHARMA CONTRIBUTOR

Best of Enemies examines a watershed moment in history when the struggling American Broadcasting Company (ABC) decided to forgo gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 1968 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Instead, it drew audiences through 10 sideline commentaries and debates between famed intellectuals Gore Vidal, a prolific writer whose work championed progressive causes and identity politics, and William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of the National Review, a magazine credited with revitalizing the American conservative movement.

Both men were accomplished and respected within their fields, and had about them similar airs — that of well-read Atlantic elites — but the rhetoric of the time put them on opposite ends of America’s cultural landscape. It was the era of Vietnam protests, questioning of the nation's direction, and disillusionment of public trust.

The assassinations of J.F.K., Bobby Kennedy, and M.L.K. loomed over all.

What could have been an opportunity to examine and debate the future of America, an opportunity to start a discourse based on good faith and common stakes, instead took a darker turn: it gave birth to what we now know as political punditry. What’s apparent from the footage and historical accounts is that both men lost themselves to common human weakness, pride, and ego. Buckley regarded Vidal as a lewd, fame-hungry pornographer, often referring to him as the “author of Myra Breckinridge” — one

of Vidal’s controversial satire novels that tackled topics of sexuality and gender identity. In turn, Vidal saw Buckley as a bigot who represented a dangerous and hawkish segment of America’s polity.

The real argument that ended up being televised to the public like a caged bloodsport was “who was the better person,” as both men tried to discredit each other’s morals and beliefs.

There are moments of serenity, of genuine back and forth over important issues. However the moments that capture the attention of audiences the most are the verbal spats, the barely restrained and seething animosity between the two men. The tenor of the discussion reaches a boiling point in the penultimate episode, when Vidal refers to his counterpart as a “crypto-Nazi.” The enraged Buckley, his playful and collected facade slipping, who fired back with, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.” It is a tense exchange that both men, especially Buckley, would regret for the rest of their lives, igniting a lifelong feud that dabbled in litigation.

But it’s exactly the type of moment the audience loved. Through archive footage and personal accounts, Best of Enemies does an amazing job of f leshing out the character and personalities of its two main players — but it is also a critique of the personalities drawn to the televised arena, and the irresponsible machine that T V news media would become. It accomplishes, in an hour and 28 minutes, what Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom shouted for three seasons. Consider this documentary required viewing if you enjoy railing against news media and the art of insult journalism in general.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

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ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

Superhero? Antihero? Whatever he is, it works Deadpool proves once and for all that Marvel isn't just for kids. Time to make the chimi-fucking-changas!

KAT MARUSIAK THE CASCADE

Fans have been waiting to see the "Merc with a Mouth" get his own movie for a long time now, and the wait has proven worth it.

Twenty-five years after his first appearance in a Marvel comic (New Mutants #98), Deadpool has exploded onto the big screen in a big way.

After being sidelined in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds returns to the role he was practically made for, absolutely nailing his portrayal of Wade Wilson, an exSpecial Forces operative turned mercenary who falls in love with a escort named Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin). After discovering he has cancer, Wade eventually turns to a shady organization (known to fans of the comics as “Weapon X”) offering him a potential cure. But — of course — they have a hidden agenda, and the terrible, painful procedures performed on him by Francis Freeman, a mutant also known as Ajax (Ed Skrein), ultimately leave him with incredible healing / regenerative abilities rendering him practically immortal.

Unfortunately, he is also left horribly scarred and disfigured in the process — or, as his best friend Weasel (T.J. Miller)

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describes it to him, “You look like Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah.”

Left for dead by his enemies, Wade takes Weasel's advice and dons a disguise, becoming the regenerating degenerate known as Deadpool, ready to track down Ajax and hopefully fix his face. (A “dead pool” being a game where players bet on odds concerning the death of a person or multiple people.)

However, Vanessa is kidnapped, and suddenly, Wade isn’t just looking for revenge, but also to save the woman he loves, while simultaneously fighting the fear that she may not want him any more after what he has become.

There had been some fear among fans of the comic books that the filmmakers (director Tim Miller and screenwriters R hett Reese and Paul Warnick) might choose to heavily censor the movie adaptation in order for it to have a low enough rating for children in order to cash in on the genre’s popularity. However, the series has never been intended — or even appropriate — for children, as the adult subject matter and Deadpool's foul-mouthed, cynical sense of humour have always been an integral part of the story and character, and thankfully the film's creators chose to stay true to the

source material.

Deadpool was originally introduced as a villain before becoming the unorthodox antihero we now know, a character that f launts his less-than-classy behaviour, wise-cracking wit, and love of gratuitous violence.

And in case any viewers were still somehow unaware of this before watching, Deadpool has always been notable for this ability to break the fourth wall — he is portrayed as being fully aware that he is, in fact, a fictional character, acknowledging this through constant references and direct addresses. As he states during the film: "You're probably thinking, 'This is a superhero movie, but that guy in the suit just turned that other guy into a fucking kebab.' Surprise! This is a different kind of superhero story."

This “comic awareness” is a rather uncommon trait for comic book characters, and the writers did a fantastic job of utilizing it for comedic impact, with Deadpool intermittently narrating and offering commentary throughout the film.

Reynolds himself commented on why he thinks this dynamic is so entertaining for older fans of the superhero film genre in an interview with GQ, saying, "I think Deadpool's coming along at the right time,

because it's speaking to that generation that has seen all these comic-book films and enjoyed them all to varying degrees of success ... it's speaking to them as though the guy in that red suit is one of them to some degree ... It's like there’s an element of, like, watching a DVD commentary by someone who's got some pop-culture sav vy and is kind of funny and a little obnoxious and is saying the things that you wouldn't say."

He certainly does, delivering a satisf ying dose of vulgar humour, with more naughty language than Captain America could handle.

Deadpool is full of fast-paced action sequences, lots of laughs, and some gorgeous visuals — not to mention, as Betty White put it in her review of the film, “Ryan Reynolds looks so fucking handsome in his red leather suit!” (Which Deadpool would surely be thrilled to hear, being a longstanding fan of The Golden Girls.) If tons of ass kicking and dick jokes aren't up your alley, then this movie probably isn't for you, and it is definitely not for children — which is part of the reason the rest of us love it so much.

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

Meet the Patels reconciles two worlds PANKAJ SHARMA CONTRIBUTOR

There was a time when my entire extended family’s main concern was when I would finish my degree and find a path for my life. However, ever since we came to the realization that my true calling was making too-foamy lattes with inconsistent art, the phone calls, check-ins, lectures, and dinnertime conversations have all been about one thing — marriage. I try to explain the cultural norms here about dating and how I’d like a stable career first, or at the very least learn how to properly steam milk.

In Meet the Patels, Ravi Patel, a Gujrati-American actor (who guest-starred on Master of None) has similar arguments with his parents, but with heightened urgency.

He’s nearing 30 and as far as they know he’s never even dated. In reality he was dating a great girl for over two years just weeks before a family Patel trip to India, but doubt and cultural stigma, along with his parents’ wishes that he end up with a “perfect Patel girl,” meant he was never able to tell them about her.

There are a few strands explored in this documentary, all heartwarmingly captured through candid home videos shot by Ravi’s sister Geeta (co-director, also 30-something and single) and intercut with animated interviews. The most obvious one is how it tackles the idea of traditional

arranged marriages and arranged dating compared to how it works in the West. Can you find love, or does it grow and build? While initially reluctant and a little embarrassed, Ravi gives arranged dating a chance and jumps into a world of dating resumes screened by his family, matrimonial websites that filter by caste, and even a “Patel Convention” with three and a half hours of icebreakers. However, while the focus is on him, there are quite a few moments where the audience’s attention is drawn to Geeta, who, while maintaining the aura of an impartial observer, also has her own experiences and struggles with the pressures of marriage and living up to the expectations of their parents and culture.

Leading a double life, the one we live in our homes and amongst our families, and the one we live out in the world with our friends, is an experience shared by many. For the children of immigrants there is an immense pressure to balance and negotiate between two worlds, old and new, to honour the sacrifices of our parents. During a tense moment in the latter half of the film Ravi’s mother laments that she “will not give up her culture so easily.” Yet traditions change, cultures adapt, and assimilation looms over their heads. At times funny and charming, but also heartbreaking, Meet The Patels is an amazing showcase of how cultures clash and the people in between must decide who they will be and how they will love.

ALBUM REVIEW

Basia Bulat inches toward pop-composition risks in debut Good Advice MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

The last couple of years have seen more female pop vocalists taking more risks in their aesthetic expression, not pandering to the trends that dominate the charts. Basia Bulat’s debut record, Good Advice, finds itself straddling that line — between the more carefree pop of today, and a more reserved, self-aware aesthetic that grounds itself in Bulat’s talents as a singer and multi-instrumentalist.

“La La Lie,” the first track on Good Advice, is backed by a simple melody that repeats in the chorus. The cheerfulness of the track is punctuated with bittersweet lyricism, culminating in a tambourine-driven minute that would fit in perfectly as the soundtrack to the part of a movie wherein the main character, previously downtrodden and depressed, finally finds the courage to just be happy.

“Let Me In” is interesting mostly because of Bulat’s practice of presenting the listener with two almost irreconcilable melodic lines (one instrumental and one sung), which work by simultaneously shifting in pace and tone relative to each other throughout the track, and, just as they start to drag on too long, coalescing into an interlude that’s remarkably reminiscent of something ABBA might have done if they were something like seven cheer points lower on the cheerfulness scale.

“Time,” a calmer, more sentimental track, is perhaps the best representation of Bulat’s vocal talents. Although not possessed by the energy found in the first couple of tracks on the record, “Time” works as Good Advice’s equivalent to the kind of love song that’s all pining and insecurity, which is communicated more

by Bulat’s increasingly fragile (yet still not frail) tone of voice, as opposed to the lyricism, which, although still a rung or two above the norm, falls f lat, or the instrumentation, which is comprised of a steady piano and drum beat.

“Time” and the track that follows it, “Good Advice,” are the most clear examples of Bulat leaning (perhaps too far) over into the black hole at the center of alternative pop, wherein every song, borderless and without any discernable differences from the thousands that have preceded it, is sucked in and compressed into an amorphous blob, shapeless and without punch. In short, the tracks aren’t bad, but they’re not good. They’re not doing anything new

or building upon anything that’s come before them.

They just are.

“Infamous” saves the day, showcasing the best of the record’s appealing qualities: driven forward by percussion and a droning synth, as well as an ubiquitously strummed guitar more there for rhythm than melody, Bulat croons in a wavering tone: “Come back or not but call it off / Come back or don’t but turn me down / Don’t waste my time pretending love is somewhere else.”

The best track on the record is neatly tucked away in its last third: “Fool” makes use of more simple instrumentation than most of the other tracks on the record, but is home to Bulat’s most passionately delivered chorus. It’s Bulat at her best: contemplative, but not overly so, accompanied by an instrumental amalgamation of joyful and melancholic tones, highlighting her delivery. As a debut record, Good Advice is a convincing case for Bulat’s bright future as a singer-songwriter.

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Photograph: Mitch Huttema WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

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